Warning: mysql_fetch_row(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/lemarche/www/population_ageing/dossier.php on line 52Growing Old in America: Expectations vs. Reality [ Agetimes.com ]

Document sans titreGetting old isn't nearly
as bad as people think it will be. Nor is it quite as good.

On aspects of everyday life ranging from mental acuity to physical
dexterity to sexual activity to financial security, a new Pew Research Center
Social & Demographic Trends survey on aging among a nationally representative
sample of 2,969 adults finds a sizable gap between the expectations that young
and middle-aged adults have about old age and the actual experiences reported
by older Americans themselves.

These disparities come into sharpest focus when survey respondents
are asked about a series of negative benchmarks often associated with aging,
such as illness, memory loss, an inability to drive, an end to sexual activity,
a struggle with loneliness and depression, and difficulty paying bills. In every
instance, older adults report experiencing them at lower levels (often far lower)
than younger adults report expecting to encounter them when they grow old.1

At the same time, however, older adults report experiencing
fewer of the benefits of aging that younger adults expect to enjoy when they
grow old, such as spending more time with their family, traveling more for pleasure,
having more time for hobbies, doing volunteer work or starting a second career.

These generation gaps in perception also extend to the most
basic question of all about old age: When does it begin? Survey respondents
ages 18 to 29 believe that the average person becomes old at age 60. Middle-aged
respondents put the threshold closer to 70, and respondents ages 65 and above
say that the average person does not become old until turning 74.

Other potential markers of old age--such as forgetfulness, retirement,
becoming sexually inactive, experiencing bladder control problems, getting gray
hair, having grandchildren--are the subjects of similar perceptual gaps. For
example, nearly two-thirds of adults ages 18 to 29 believe that when someone
"frequently forgets familiar names," that person is old. Less than
half of all adults ages 30 and older agree.

However, a handful of potential markers--failing health,
an inability to live independently, an inability to drive, difficulty with stairs--engender
agreement across all generations about the degree to which they serve as an
indicator of old age.

2nd World Congress on Healthy Ageing
:
2015-07-25
Johannesburg Warning: mysql_fetch_row(): supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/lemarche/www/population_ageing/droit.php on line 138